Sacred Stones, Sacred Stories

New storage lockers located near a back entrance to the motherhouse of the Sisters’ monastery in Clyde, Mo., were brilliantly crafted by members of the maintenance staff, including Larry Jensen, Jared McQueen and Jeremy McQueen.

Sister Ruth Elaine stands next to her new locker, crafted from salvaged pine trees.

After coworker Don Combe renovated the space, the trio built the new lockers for Sisters to store coats, hats, gloves and other weather-related items.

In addition to their daily use, the lockers represent a part of Benedictine history. They were built from Austrian pines, once part of a large stand of trees planted under the direction of community chaplain Father Lukas Etlin, OSB in the early 1900s.
“Some of the trees gradually died from too much moisture after the floods in 1993,” Sister Sean Douglas, OSB said. “The excess moisture led to a fungus, and over the ensuing years, they all died.”
All was not lost, as the Sisters saved the wood, cut the logs in their saw mill, stored the lumber and use it for various projects around the monastery.
“As Benedictines, even in loss, we find beauty and a new purpose,” Clyde Prioress Sister Pat Nyquist, OSB said.

It’s with sad hearts we’ve witnessed the passing of several of our pine trees on our monastery property in Missouri.

Many states in the Midwest have been fighting this fatal disease with very little success. If possible, we will harvest the wood and recycle it (provided it won’t cause any further advancement of the disease).

Most of these beautiful pines were planted by our early Sisters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Missing the Alpine views of their native Swiss home, they planted these pine trees as an homage when they began their lives in the New World.

We can just imagine them sitting on the east porch and watching the sun rise over the tops of the tall pines, reflecting a little bit of home in the rolling hills of northwest Missouri, bringing comfort to them as they traveled so far to undertake their monastic mission. Since then, generations of Sisters have enjoyed the same view. We pray that future Sisters will also have the chance to bask in their majesty too.